HI ALL:
Around 5:15pm I heard a Steller's Jay and a Douglas's Squirrel making
alarm noises from my neighbors yard. I tracked down the noise to a cedar
tree and after awhile found a juvenile Cooper's Hawk perched near the
trunk. The Steller's Jay by this time had gone but the squirrel kept the
noise going. The Cooper's Hawk pretty much ignored the squirrel , but the
squirrel would play cat-and-mouse with the hawk. moving closer, calling
and then retreating. This went on for about half an hour until the
Cooper's Hawk moved to the other side of the trunk and the squirrel
retreated. The Cooper's then flew off. But the squirrel was still calling
when I left. I read that Cooper's Hawks will take mammalian prey, so the
squirrel was lucky it didn't become hawk dinner!
Ian Paulsen
Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
ipaulsen at krl.org
A.K.A.: "Birdbooker"
"Rallidae all the way"